


Looking for Alibrandi

by KalieKlys



Series: Javahverse [1]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics)
Genre: Child Abuse, Child Death, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Implied/Referenced Torture, Pre-Relationship, Searching for Artemis and Bizarro
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-07
Updated: 2018-10-07
Packaged: 2019-07-27 12:49:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16219376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KalieKlys/pseuds/KalieKlys
Summary: Artemis and Bizarro are gone. Jason has been exiled from Gotham and is on the run. And now this woman shows up looking for his help to find a child murderer and in return, she'll help put him in touch with people who could help him bring Artemis and Bizarro back.What has he got to lose?





	Looking for Alibrandi

**Author's Note:**

> This is something that I've been working on for a little while now since I've started dabbling in fanfiction once again.
> 
> Normally I'm not one to play with Original Characters unless they're victims or something along those lines but Zivah would not leave my head.

The café reminded her of the one she, her sister and parents would go to when she and her mother were home. It was small, homey with exposed red brick walls. Chair’s varied from armchairs to couches to wooden chairs surrounding tables. It was kind of hipsterish, but as she sat down in a vacant brightly coloured chair, she couldn’t help but like the mix-matched vibe they had going.

It was, of course, the last place she expected to come across the man she had been searching for. He didn’t seem the type to want to sit down in a vaguely hippy café, but she guessed that was why he had decided to go inside in the first place. No one would suspect that the Red Hood was having coffee in a location like this.

After ordering and waiting for her tea to arrive, she observed the large man sitting across the room from her. She had been expecting that he would be tall, all the information she had gathered told her that, but nothing she had collected had allowed her to fully understand just how big he was in reality. He outweighed her by fifty pounds at least for twenty-two kilos, if she wanted to do the conversions. He was all muscle, and she wondered if he used that to his advantage when he fought.

Opening her notebook, there was nothing else she was able to confirm from her notes in regards to his physicality by watching him sit and look at his phone. She had seen him in action numerous times over the past few days while looking through news footage, but it was one thing to watch him online and another to watch him in person.

She didn’t know how sensitive to magick he was, so she kept her own magical observations on the down low, doing everything she could to examine him without letting it touch him. It didn’t take long for her to have a pit form in her stomach and to pull back. His aura was a whirling mass around him, almost shielding him from any external emotions that wanted to touch him. It wasn’t just his aura that made her withdraw.

She was well versed in the language of loss having watched first hands as two of her sisters were killed in an act that her family declared as war. She had watched as her mother got lost in it. Using revenge as the only means to keep her grief at bay until the birth of her youngest and final child. It was only then that her Mother allowed herself to feel once again.

She had been dragged with her father around the world as he worked through his own pain; looking for a way to bring them both back until he fell to pieces and took them both back to her mother.

She had immersed herself in her studies, hoping that becoming more powerful in the ways of magick she would be able to give her father the strength he needed to bring her sisters back.

In the end, they hadn’t been able to bring her sisters back to the living, but they were able to heal enough that her youngest sister didn’t feel as though she had been welcomed into a broken family.

As she stared across the café at the hooded man in the corner, she could almost feel waves of anguish coming off him as she pulled back from him. It startled her at first. While she was well aware of the more recent escapades of Red Hood, she had not been expecting him to feel the way that she did.

Sadness covered his aura in an inky blue that reminded her of the ocean after a storm or the colour of the ink her mother used when she signed someone's death warrant. Sadness linked in with this feeling of bereavement had her wondering what she was missing for him to feel like this. Perhaps what had happened in Gotham was much more complicated than she had initially believed.

The inky blue blanket of sadness was only masking what was underneath, a rippling dark red signifying the barely held in anger he felt. Rage at what, she wasn’t sure, but she had a feeling that it was tied in with what had transpired in Gotham.

Picking up her green tea, she tried to watch him as covertly as possible. She had done her research before she had searched him out. He had been well trained by the best in the world, so even with the best of luck he would in all probability spot her momentarily as being covert wasn’t really her style. She would, however, still count it as a win if she were able to finish her cup of tea before he came over and demanded to know why she was watching him.

The café between the two of them provided the perfect cover for them both. Red Hood was able to stay hidden in plain sight and do whatever it was he was there to do, and she was able to observe him and work out the best way to approach him.

Doing it in front of all these people would no doubt put him on edge, and the last thing that she needed was to put a man that was being hunted by practically everyone more on edge than what he already was.

No, it was better to try and get his attention some other way and hope that by doing so she would be able to get his help.

She glanced up at the TV that was in the upper right corner of the room and saw the Today show transition from a story about adopting kittens to the latest updates on the whereabouts of Red Hood. She looked back over at Red Hood and just saw his back as he strode out the door as if the transition to a story about him had been a signal for him to leave. Staring down into the tea leaves at the bottom of her cup she clenched her jaw.

Perhaps trying to get Red Hood alone was going to be a lot harder than she initially thought it would.

* * *

The feeling that he was being watched hung around him like a foul stench and Jason wondered if maybe he hadn’t covered his tracks as well as he had hoped. While Batman wouldn’t be actively searching for him day and night, he didn’t doubt that the computer was currently searching through all his known aliases and phone numbers in search for him. Bruce didn’t seem like he was willing to leave what had happened in Gotham alone, not that Jason expected him to.

There was something different about this particular fracture in their relationship however that made Jason believe that if there was ever a chance that they could repair bridges it was gone now.

Although he was sure that Batman was putting minimal effort into finding him right now, with how things were in Gotham before his departure, Jason was pretty sure that it wasn’t him that was watching him. Batman always had this looming feeling around him, and Jason could usually figure out when he was near him – case and point: the last time they had been face to face. This, however, has an entirely different feeling. One that he had never felt before yet was somehow comforting and laced with magick.

He had never felt that before when he had been around magick. Even when he had hung out with Zatanna once or twice the magick he had sensed never had this feeling of calmness attached to it. Despite how great Zatanna was, she always had this confidence that came with her magick with a small amount of fear on the side. Whoever this was, was either using their magick to make him feel at ease, or there was something else going on that he couldn’t quite put his finger on yet.

The feeling of being kept under surveillance followed him for days as he started to hunt down the person that he was searching for. Didn’t matter where he went or what time of the day it was the feeling lingered. After a while, he started to tune it out, and it almost became comforting.

There was a moment where he thought that maybe his guardian angel had gotten off their ass and had finally started to look out for him, but that thought disappeared almost as quickly as it had appeared in his mind.

If he had any kind of guardian angel, they gave up on looking out for him a long time ago.

Or after a while, they had realised that anything they did to try and change Jason’s mind was fruitless and he would continue on his path and ignore any kind of subliminal help they gave him.

The picture of this totally done guardian angel had amused him for a little while as he surveilled the apartment where his mark was currently living. The more he watched, the more he realised that he could think back to this person whenever Alfred made a comment about his safe houses. That was if he ever got the chance to hear Alfred make a comment about the state of his safe houses again.

While the man watched a rerun of FRIENDS, Jason wondered if there was any point to what he was doing. No one he had tracked down yet had managed to give him a clear answer on whether or not it was possible for him to bring Artemis and Bizarro back.

In fact, he was pretty sure he had been given more riddles than answers over the past couple of months.

As the episode ended, Jason felt the hair on the back of his neck go up, and he shifted in his seat. This wasn’t just a feeling that he was being watched this time. He was being watched.

He reached around behind him, making out that he was reaching for something in his bag and surveyed the area.

There was nothing out of the ordinary that he could see. That didn’t discount that no one was there, only that they were better at playing hide and seek than what Jason wanted to give them credit for. It did rule out it being Batman or Nightwing or any of the others who could have been sent to pick him up. They wouldn’t be bothered with taking their time and hiding. They would just walk up and get the job done.

It was possible that it was someone that Talia had sent. While Damian may have chosen to have limited interactions with his mother, Jason did not have the same point of view in regards to blocking her out of his life. Despite her unorthodox ways of parenting, she had helped him gain the skills that he currently had and had told him that she was willing to help him if he wanted further training.

It was something he was considering taking her up on, but as of yet, he hadn’t figured out what path he wanted to go down.

If Talia did want to speak to him, she wouldn’t have sent someone to get him and even if she had Talia wouldn’t have sent someone who dealt with magick. Coming to talk with him was one of the few things that she preferred to do in person.

With all the logical ruled out, it only left an unknown which was a lot more likely than Jason would have liked to admit.

A tingling started to go up and down his arms, letting him know that whoever it was was close. His hand wrapped around his gun as he saw someone sit down on the roof ledge across from him and without a word he drew the handgun and aimed…

…right at a woman who didn’t seem at all phased that she had a gun pointed at her. Instead, she just gave him a little finger wave and said ‘Hi.’

Under different circumstances, he probably would have been impressed. Right now he was just annoyed.

She looked over her shoulder and into the apartment that he was surveilling. ‘So do you enjoy being a voyeur or it that just a perk to the job?’

‘What makes you think that I’m a voyeur?’

‘Well, as far as I know, there are only two types of people who look into peoples windows. One is a voyeur, and the other is a cop and considering you’re currently America’s most wanted man I’m going to rule out you being a cop,’ she explained. She had an Australian accent, and Jason wondered if he would be able to trick her into saying  _Crikey_.

‘America’s most wanted man? I feel very special.’

‘Well, maybe not the most wanted man but you’ve got to be in the top five at the very least right now. If you do something else like shoot Batman or Superman, you may go up to number five pretty quickly. However, you may get supporters if you shoot the Joker.’

‘That’s good to know what is going to help me get better PR. You want to represent me or something?’

‘I’m not here for that.’

‘Want to tell me why you’ve been following me? Preferably before I shoot you and give away my position.’

A pleased look appeared on her face, and she crossed her legs. ‘I was wondering if you would pick up on me if I started getting a little too close.’

‘So this was an experiment?’

‘No, this was me trying to work you out before I started to talk to you,’ she explained. ‘I’ve heard a lot about you Red Hood, and I needed to make sure what I was hearing wasn’t all bravo and people talking out of their asses.’

‘So did I live up to your expectations or it this one of those situations where you say don’t meet your heroes?’

‘Hood, can I call you Hood?’ she asked and then continued on without waiting for him to answer. ‘This was never a thing where I wanted to meet you because I idolised you. I needed to scope you out because I need your help with something.’

Jason lowered his gun but still kept it aimed at her. He didn’t see anything about the way she was sitting that made him feel as if she was going to attack, but he didn’t put it away. Nothing she had said or done yet made him trust her or what she was saying to him. Except for perhaps the Joker remark.

‘I’m not part of the Justice League, sweetheart. I’m not about to do something heroic.’                   

‘Really?’

‘Yep.’

She gave him a knowing look. ‘I think your associates Arsenal, Starfire, Artemis, and Bizarro would disagree with you.’

Jason’s grip tightened.

‘I think we’re done talking.’

The light-hearted tone of her voice changed to something much more serious.

‘I don’t think we are. I’m aware of quite a few things Hood, and I’m not saying them to you to blackmail you in any way. I don’t know everything, but I do know enough that I think I am making the right decision to get your help.’

‘Like I said, I’m not in the superhero business.’

‘I’m not after someone in the superhero business. I am however after someone in the mercenary business and isn’t afraid to be ruthless to get answers.’

‘If you’re after a mercenary it’s not something that goes without payment.’

‘I’m aware, and I have a payment in mind. It isn’t however monetary.’

‘What could you possibly have that I would want?’

‘I could put you in touch with someone who can help you get your friends back through the Quantum Door.’

Jason stared at her, trying to see any facial cues that could tell him that she was lying. There was nothing. Her face was only filed with curiosity over whether or not he was willing to listen further. Her eyes were locked on his and so far every question that he had asked her she has answered without taking her eyes off him. Either she was an excellent liar, or she was telling the truth about being able to help him and her vague reasons for searching him out.

‘I’ve got your interest,’ She said.

‘Yes. What exactly do you need me to do for you to give me this information?’

‘I need your help tracking down a man who likes to kill little girls, and I need you to help me kill him.’

For a moment Jason was sure that he had misheard her. It wouldn’t have been the first time since his revival in the Lazarus pit that his brain had twisted something innocent into something murderous. Only it had been years since something like that had happened but that didn’t mean that he was relapsing.

‘Pardon?’

‘I need your help tracking down a man who likes to kill little girls, and I need you to help me kill him.’

Ok. So he hadn’t misheard things. This was definitely a first for him. Not the killing people thing of course, but the being asked to kill someone. Under usual circumstances it just kind of happened.

‘So you just need me to kill someone for you, and you’ll get me in touch with people who can help me?’ Jason asked.

‘No, I want you to help me find him and kill him. I don’t want you to do it for me.’

‘Well, you have my attention.’

‘But you’re not sure if you want to take the job.’

‘Got it in one,’ Jason replied.

The woman shrugged and reached behind her. The movement wasn’t sudden, but it did make Jason slightly nervous for a little while as he watched her dig around in a bag before she pulled out a manila folder.

‘I kind of expected you to be skeptical. You have a reputation for ensuring that you have all the information you need before you make a move,’ she explained placing the folder on the ledge beside her. ‘This is for you. I’m not going to force you to take the job if you don’t want to.’

She got to her feet and picked up her bag.

‘What if I decide that I want to take the job?’ Jason asked.

‘Everything you need is in there,’ she replied and tapped the folder. ‘I hope to hear from you soon.’

He kept his gun trained on her until she disappeared from his line of sight. Even then he made sure it was within grasp just in case she came back. With the buildings not too far apart from each other, Jason didn’t have to jump far to get the folder and return to his original seat.

The folder was well organised, reminding Jason of the information that Tim used to send him on the odd occasion that the two of them worked together. It contained background info on the guy that she wanted to find as well as some basic information on what he had done. To be fair, he could totally understand why anyone would want a man like this killed, but nothing in the folder gave him any idea as to why she was so focused on him.

It was possible that she had done that to ensure that Jason only had the facts and wasn’t persuaded by her own feelings. But he had a hunch that she was keeping the real reason as to why she wanted him dead to herself – at least for now.

He sat on the ledge for thirty minutes after she left, looking over everything before glancing back at the man that he had been surveilling. He could easily stay here and continue watching him in the hopes that he would lead him to the people that he needed to bring Artemis and Bizarro back or he could take this woman up on her offer and completely cut out all the legwork that was in his future.

But that all depended on whether or not this woman was telling him the truth. She could very well be setting him up for an effortless and deadly dismissal once all the dirty work was complete.

Jason picked up the business card that she had tucked in the back of the file. It was a simple white card with the name  _Zivah Hostin_  written in Times New Roman. On the back in elegant cursive was an address.

He pulled out his phone and did a quick search of the address. It was linked to a nice hotel. Not overly expensive but comfortable enough that you wouldn’t need to be on the lookout for anything particularly horrible that might scurry across the floor.

Closing the folder, Jason looked down at his dangling feet. If truth be told, he had nothing to lose. The guy in the apartment wasn’t going anywhere unless he was actually forced to. His routine was a straightforward one – home, work, grocery store, home – and if this job turned out to be a false lead, then it wasn’t like he was going to actually lose any ground. He could potentially gain a lot more by taking the job than saying no.

He flipped the business card between his fingers a couple of times before getting to his feet.

Even if he gained nothing from taking the job, he’d be putting an end to a child killer’s career, and he was up for that any time. Putting the file into his bag, he stepped off the ledge and grappled his way down into the alleyway before walking out onto the street.

* * *

Zivah would never claim to be the most confident person in the world. She could put on a perfect front in front of the right people as she had done most of her life due to her mother’s profession, but talking to Red Hood like she had done was not something that came with ease.

However, she did admit to herself that the banter the two of them had shared had been a lot of fun.

She did not expect to hear from Red Hood for a while, if at all. It had been ballsy to just turn up like she had but she hadn’t been able to find a better time to talk to him about acquiring his help. Plus, talking to him on the rood of a building was a lot less likely to draw the attention of passers-by compared to if she had just sat down next to him in a café or if she had cornered him in his hotel room.

No, neither of those would have been a good idea. Especially with how quick he had been to pull out a weapon.

Falling back onto her bed she stared up at the roof and tried to come up with some kind of plan if Red Hood didn’t take her offer. She didn’t think she could entice him any more than what she had already done. He had already proved that he had enough money hidden around that using it as an incentive was not going to work.

Presidential pardon was an option, but Zivah had no wish to put herself into a position where she owned Lex Luthor a favour, regardless of how well he got on with her mother. He would call on it when he felt like he needed to, more than likely when he was once again butting heads with Superman, and she didn’t want to have that particular superhero set his sights on her. There was always the chance that with him would come Wonder Woman and Batman, and as much as she liked the Amazon Princess, she didn’t want to go head to head with the three of them at once.

She didn’t have the power nor the lack of self-preservation to want to take all three of them on at once.

There was his whole thing about the Joker, however? Could offering to break the clown out of Arkham and delivering him to Red Hood be enough to get him to accept?

A knock on the door drew her out of her thoughts, and she pushed herself up onto her elbows. She wasn’t expecting anyone. She hadn’t ordered anything from room service because she wanted to go and check out the ramen place down the street. It was possible that a message had been left at the desk, but it would have been given to her when she had returned, plus her family always contacted her on her mobile if they needed to.

Pushing herself onto her feet, she sent out her energy underneath the door to sense who was there. She hadn’t even reached the door when recognition flooded her senses, and she peered through the peephole to confirm.

Red Hood was standing in the hallway outside her door.

Ok.

Well either he was here to accept or kill her because she knew his location.

‘Are you going to let me in or keep staring at me? I know I’m good looking, but I thought you had a job that you needed help with.’

She pulled the door open and looked him up and down. ‘You try that line with all the girls when you show up to their hotel rooms or am I just special?’

A smirk that was filled with conceited confidence filled his face, and he stepped closer to her.

‘A little of column A and a little of column B.’

‘You’re pretty, but that’s not going to stop me from cursing you.’

 ‘I’m shaking in my boots.’

‘I thought I heard your knees knocking,’ Zivah said. They stared at each other for a few minutes sizing each other up.

Zivah had to look up at Red Hood because of how close he was standing to her. If she didn’t, she’d be looking at his collarbone which was not going to help win this staring match. Whatever he was looking for didn’t take long to find and to her surprise, he took a step back.

‘Can I come in?’

‘Sure,’ she replied and stepped to the side.

He walked into the room, his eyes taking everything in; her yet to be unpacked suitcase sitting on a chair, her bag haphazardly thrown on top of her bed, the TV on the news but muted. He was profiling her based on what little she had left out in the open.

 ‘Are you here to accept my offer?’ Zivah asked.

‘I have a couple of questions I need to be answered first.’

‘And they are?’

He dropped his bag down on the bed and turned to face her. ‘How did you find me?’

It was her turn to smirk. ‘Worried that Batman will be able to use my methods and track you down?’

‘No. I’m worried that I’m not covering all my tracks like I thought I was.’

For the first time, Zivah noticed that he was carrying a lot of tension in his shoulders. He was putting on a good show, but his shoulders were holding a lot more stress than they should be holding if he was entirely at ease.

‘You covered your tracks well. None of my contacts were able to find you using the usual methods. I had to resort to  _other_  methods to find you,’ Zivah explained.

‘You used magick.’

‘First prize. I take it that you have been around it enough to be able to sense it.’

A small smile appeared on his face that was almost mocking. ‘You could say that.’

Zivah wanted to ask more questions but considering that his help rested on her answering one more question she pushed them all to the back of her mind for another day.

‘You have another question?’

‘Why me?’

Zivah blinked rapidly. ‘Pardon?’

‘Why me? I’m sure other mercenaries would be willing to do this, and you wouldn’t have to leave your hotel room.’

‘I’m sure there are, but I’m not after someone who will do my dirty work for me,’ Zivah explained.

‘And you think I’m going to let you tag along?’

‘If you think I just want to tag along on this then I don’t think you listened to me very well when I found you earlier.’

Red Hood crossed his arms. ‘You want to play mercenary?’

‘No. I want to get a man off the streets that had killed ten known girls under the age of eleven. I want to find out his exact count and the location of their bodies so they can rest in peace.’

‘And that’s it?’

There was a pause.

‘Yes.’

‘You know. I don’t believe that is all of your reasoning to hunt this guy down, but considering what kind of guy he is, I’m willing to put that aside.’

‘You’re going to help me?’ Zivah asked, walking towards him so they could shake on it.

‘Yes. But if you don’t fulfill your end of the deal know that I will drag your exact reasons for wanting this guy dead out off you using other methods.’

As he talked he bent down a little so he could look her directly in her eyes. She knew that he was trying to scare her, but all she could do was smile. He straightened up and looked at her questioningly.

‘Is that supposed to scare me?’

‘Kind of.’

‘Well, it didn’t.’

‘I’m sensing that.’ He studied her for a few moments before pulling the file out of his bag. ‘You did a good job getting this all together. It was enough to intrigue me.’

‘Thanks.’

‘What’s not in there?’

Zivah smiled and pulled out her laptop. It didn’t take long to boot up, and before Red Hood could say a word, she sat down on the bed, got herself comfortable and pulled the computer onto her lap. Over the screen, she could see him watch her, unsure what to do next.

It was kind of cute.

Pulling up the files she was after, she patted the mattress next to her. ‘You can sit down with me. I’m not going to bite.’

‘I’ve had plenty of people tell me that before only for them to try and take a chunk out of me,’ Red Hood explained but still sat down on the bed next to her.

Crossing her legs, she placed the laptop on the bed with the keyboard side resting against her legs and the screen angled so that Red Hood could see precisely what she was doing as she did it. They sat in silence until Zivah looked at him and started to go through what she knew.

‘Marcus Alibrandi was a hired gun that many of the crime families in Sydney used. There are a few difference crime family fractions in Sydney, but the biggest one is the Jade Ryū family which is run by the Miyamoto family. They’ve run that fraction for generations, controlling the crime, so it doesn’t impact as harshly to those who don’t live that life. Under the Miyamoto family, there are a lot of other families who have their own leaders, but they all answer to the Miyamoto’s. Each family has their own on-call hitmen to take out certain people lower than the leaders. The snitches, the guys that fuck up, the guys who break the rules.’

Red Hood looked as if he was taking everything in pretty well, so she continued.

‘Now Alibrandi was one of the few men that each family in the Jade Ryū family were happy to share. Partly because he was so damn good at his job and partly because they used him when all the heads of the family got together to decide that someone of high rank needed to be removed from this plane of existence.’

‘So he was the guy that was called in to take out another head of the family?’

‘Exactly. Alibrandi was really good at his job. If he was asked to make it look like a heart attack, no medical examiner was able to prove that it was suspicious. If they wanted a message to be sent, then Alibrandi was able to send that message through without any misunderstanding. No one knew that he was breaking one of the cardinal rules of the Jade Ryū family because he never drew suspicion to himself. It was a complete fuck up on his part that he was even discovered in the first place.’

‘You kept that part in the file. He got caught forcing an underage girl to give him a blow job,’ Red Hood said, an edge to his words.

‘She was a little more than underage. Prepubescent would be a better way to describe her. What I left out was that she was the daughter of one of the heads of the lower families. No one in the Hamasaki family was aware that he had been grooming her for years. No one knew that he had been messaging her online. It wasn’t until her older sister walked into her room and found that he had snuck in that everything that he had been doing was brought out into the open.’

As she talked she started bringing up photos of the girls that she was talking about, each one was labeled with their name and age as well as a short description of when Alibrandi had started to molest them.

‘Once he was discovered, Alibrandi got out of Australia as fast as he could. There was no way he was going to be safe, and no one would give him sanctuary. Giving him asylum would have instantly put you on the list of people who needed to be removed. Now if he hadn’t been discovered it would have been a different kettle of fish and the families would have done their own investigation before deal out their own form of justice. But with Niki’s sister finding her and Alibrandi, it got rid of any need for an investigation. After everything came out, it was discovered that he had been molesting girls who were a part of the Jade Ryū family for years. As well as Niki, he was grooming three other girls in preparation or at least that is what we think he was doing. Then the connections between him and some missing girls over the years started to become apparent. The more it was looked into, the more was discovered which then lead on to the discovery of his personal graveyard.’

Zivah glanced up at Red Hood and saw that his jaw was clenched. She flipped through a couple of screens until she brought up a couple that showed transactions that Alibrandi had made.

‘We discovered that while Alibrandi was good at killing and molesting, he wasn’t so good financially. He didn’t cover his tracks. We were able to follow him until we got to Texas but I’m pretty sure he got wise to us following him as he suddenly stopped using his cards. It became a game of cat an mouse where we could only follow him by rumours and word of mouth. I know he’s here right now because he got cocky again and used his card. I don’t think he realises just how close we are and thinks we’ve given up.’

‘How long have you been searching for him?’

‘Six months. By chance, I’ve had a few other business related things that I have had to do so staying in the United States hasn’t had me sitting on my ass for long periods of time waiting for him to make a move. But he’s been around magick enough to feel when someone is using it to search for him, making my job a lot harder.’

‘Which is where I come in.’

‘Yep, yep, yep. I can’t track worth a damn. Give me a pendulum and a map, and I can help you find your guy in a snap,’ she said and clicked her fingers to make her point. ‘But I’m at a disadvantage with him right now. He’s not going to suspect that I’m getting help outside of the family. He doesn’t know how you do things so with your help we’ll be able to find him.’

‘You said that you think that there is more than the girls you’ve told me, what makes you think that?’

‘We found a lot of incriminating things at his place. One of the most significant pieces of damning evidence was a box filled with what can only be described as trophies. Jewelry, pictures, things like that. There is too much to link back to the ten we know of, and there are photos of girls that we’ve been able to identify through the missing person’s website. What we need is the location of those girls. With it, we can get them home to their parents, and once we do know where they are and it’s been confirmed, we can dispose of him.’

Without a word, Red Hood took the laptop from her and started to go through all the information she had. After ten minutes he passed the laptop back to her.

‘Do you have a time frame where you need to get this done in?’

‘I’ve been in the US for six months. If I had a time frame, I would have tracked him down with magic and played cat and mouse until I got lucky.’

‘That’s good.’

‘Why?’

‘I’m going to need some time to gather some equipment and chat to some contacts. If we need to extract information out of him, I’m missing some essential tools.’

‘I didn’t know that you had that skill set.’

‘Well, beautiful, I guess there are just some things you can’t learn about a person until you talk to them.’

‘I guess so.’ Zivah smiled. ‘Is that a hint to stop digging into you?’

‘It’s more than a hint. It’s more of a sledgehammer coming through your car window.’

* * *

Getting the things he needed to hunt Alibrandi down didn’t take long at all. What did was waiting for his contacts in the city to get back to him about where the low life would be hiding out. While they waited, Jason found himself in Zivah’s hotel room, doing his own research into Alibrandi and looking through all the files that she had on him.

What he had been given and what she had told him was really just the tip of the iceberg with him. He hid his activities well, almost too well for a guy who didn’t realise until two months into his hiding that he was being tracked through his credit cards. If the Jade Ryū believed there was more involved, Zivah hadn’t been informed of it yet.

‘It’s possible, but we haven’t been able to link anyone definitively.’

‘Everyone denying being a part of it?’

‘That and he didn’t keep any records of his connections, at least not in his house. It’s possible he kept them on his phone, and we’ll find the links when we get it. Why?’

‘He’s good at covering his tracks regarding his dealings, but he’s not good at covering everything else up. It doesn’t make a lot of sense.  When you’re a part of this life, you grow up knowing this stuff. It keeps you alive. Alibrandi has been in long enough that he knows these tricks, but he didn’t put any of them into action. It’s sloppy and doesn’t match the guy you described that was so meticulous.’

‘You don’t think he’s working alone?’

‘I think its possible that he got cocky which is why he made a move on the little girl in her house while her family was home. That cockiness didn’t disappear when he was caught, and he thought that he would be safe because of how good his work was.’

‘I’d agree to a point. Alibrandi knew what we would do if he were ever caught,’ Zivah explained. ‘He knew that we would draw and quarter him. We’d sent him to do similar things to other members who had been discovered in less compromising positions. Don’t get me wrong, I think he was cocky and thought he could get away with it, but he knew that he only had one plan of action once Niki’s sister caught him with Niki.’

Jason looked back at the financial’s she had as Zivah got off the bed and made her way across the room. ‘Do you know of anyone in the US who would help him?’

‘Everyone has been  _talked_  to.’

The way she said talked gave Jason the impression that a lot more than talking had taken place. He kept shifting through her information and then trying to find more on Alibrandi. The more he dug, the more a knot started to form in his stomach. What was happening here was feeling really familiar, similar to a case that he had worked when he had been training with Talia.

‘Have you found something?’

Jason looked over at Zivah, who was halfway through making some tea. As she brought the tea bag up and down, Jason could almost hear Alfred in the room talking about how he was being generous calling anything made with a tea bag a cup of tea, when really it was just a bag of tea dust.

‘I haven’t found something. I’m just starting to make connections between this an something that I have worked on before.’

‘Really?’ Zivah asked carrying over two cups and handing one to him. It was milky and sweet, reminding him of the tea Alfred used to make when he was sick.

‘Yeah. Back when I was sixteen, I found out one of my teachers molested kids as well. I walked in on it actually but couldn’t do anything at the time. As I worked with him, I started to do my own investigation and found this spiderweb of child molesters all over the country, all linking back to my teacher.’

‘I’m going to guess you look on them as favorably as what I do.’

‘The web didn’t last long after I completed my training,’ Jason said placing the cup on the bedside table. ‘When I first started looking into it, this was the same kind of stuff that I was finding. Guys making slip-ups that they shouldn’t have while being able to hide their more elicit actions.’

‘Cocky men helping cocky men,’ Ziva said.

‘It wouldn’t be the first time men like this ran in circles and helped each other to hide their actions. Before the internet, it was the only way to ensure that the group didn’t come tumbling down. These days the groups are wider reaching because of the internet, but the same thing applies – to stop the group from getting caught they need to work together to cover everyone’s asses.’

‘So we have a spider problem in the Jade Ryū.’

‘I wouldn’t be surprised if there were one or two others in the Jade Ryū that helped him. You may find a nest throughout the city that may need to be dealt with as well.’

A contemplative look crossed her face, and she shifted closer to him to look at the screen. ‘Have you been able to find any other connections?’

‘Not yet.’

‘The family is not going to make a move against someone unless they have more information.’

‘So we either need to find it or get Alibrandi to give it to us.’

Zivah nodded. ‘I still need to update them. Even if they can’t make a move, they can begin planning and do their own investigation. Hopefully, we will meet in the middle.’

Jason didn’t say anything in reply. Instead, he focused on the unredacted police reports. He was curious as to why the Jade Ryū had gone to the police in the first place to report anything. In Gotham, if something like this happened then, it was dealt with internally. The police only got involved to deal with the bodies.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Zivah grab her phone and walk into the bathroom. Seconds later her muffled voice could be heard. He had to give it to her, she was dedicated to her job. What her job actually was in the crime family Jason hadn’t quite worked out. She was too little to be an enforcer but considering her strengths with magick he guessed that she could be useful to enforce things in other ways.

He was very curious as to how she got involved in a crime family, to begin with. Not many dabbled with magick users in their ranks as they usually stayed solo. That on its own made him interested. Was she someone that the family had brought in for this job or was she a member who dabbled in magick.

Once they had parted ways, he was going to do a little digging of his own into Zivah Hostin.

As he started flicking through the photos Zivah had of Alibrandi’s house, Jason felt his phone start vibrating in his pocket. Pulling it out, he answered it before he even read the name on the screen.

‘Hello.’

‘Hey, so the next time you decide to leave town maybe leave a note. Kori and I have been worried sick that something had happened and we didn’t know.’

The sound of Roy’s voice made Jason smile, even if the redhead did sound as if he was annoyed with him. He put the phone onto speaker mode before going back to looking through the photos.

‘Sorry, I wanted to get moving without causing too many problems for you and Kori. I know it was hard enough not telling Nightwing that you knew where I was,’ Jason replied.

‘Wasn’t that hard really. Kind of fun to tell lies to Dick’s face and see how quickly he works out if I’m lying or not.’

‘You have very simple pleasures.’

‘I’ve got to get my entertainment somewhere,’ Roy said. ‘I’m not calling to chew you out on you just up and leaving either.’

‘Nice to know. I don’t know how I would be able to hold back to tears if you did.’

‘Funny. I got a hit back on that mobile number you gave me or at least Kori did.’

‘She ran the number?’

‘She got Cyborg to run the number and told him that it was something that Dick or the little Robin didn’t need to know about. I think she also offered him pizza for a month, but her methods don’t really matter. What does is that she got a hit.’

‘You found him?’

‘We found the phone,’ Roy said. ‘The guy you’re after ditched it by giving it to a very enthusiastic ten-year-old boy who unlocked it and found some disturbing pictures. Local police were called, reports were made, you know the drill.’

‘That I do. None of that helps me find the guy though.’

The door to the bathroom opened and Zivah walked out tapping her phone against the palm of her hand. Seeing him on the phone, she quietly walked over, grabbed her tea and sat on the other side of the room to finish it without disturbing him.

‘That’s where you’re wrong. A sketch went out of this guy, and a woman came forward. Ten minutes after he ditched his phone he bought a new one from her. She remembered him because he kept giving creepy looks to her daughter who was working in the store and earning a bit of extra cash for a school field trip. She was going to put the word out about him just in case when she saw his picture on the news. The woman kept good records, and she had the information on the phone.’

‘And from that, you were able to track him down before the police.’

‘Yep. Whatever information the girl your with has got it’s pretty spot on. He’s close to you, like within five blocks of her hotel room close. Kori’s been watching his movements for the past few hours. He’s been centered mostly on one particular address, a warehouse out near the docks.’

‘Isolated?’

‘It is at night,’ Roy replied. ‘Do you need any help with this one?’

Jason glanced up at Zivah, who raised an eyebrow in response.

‘I think we’ve got this.’

Roy didn’t sound so sure as they said their goodbyes. It was understandable considering the state he had been when the two had last seen each other, but he didn’t need to drag Roy and Kori into this. It was bad enough they were already involved with everything that was happening with Batman.

He searched through his texts to find the one that Roy had sent containing the address of the warehouse before dropping the phone on the bed. He hadn’t even opened google maps before Zivah was sitting on the bed beside him once more. The aerial view of the building loaded and the two of them looked over it in silence.

‘What do you think.’

‘Roy wouldn’t have given me the info if he didn’t think it was good.’

‘I don’t doubt that. I’m wondering what you think of this place and whether or not you think it would be sound proof.’

A small smile pulled at Jason’s lips, and he closed the laptop. ‘There’s only one way to find out.’

It didn’t take them long to get to the warehouse. It was a large, old brick building that looked like it hadn’t been used in years. So did many of the other buildings around it. As they walked down the road, Ziva pointed to a large sold sign that was barely attached to the fence before she pulled out her phone and started looking for something.

As she searched the outside, Jason slipped inside. The smell of old rotting flesh hit his nose and he scowled. Alibrandi had to be hanging out in the warehouse that stunk, didn’t he. It didn’t take long to find the source of the smell. While half of the building had been a warehouse, the other half was an old slaughterhouse that had never been thoroughly cleaned up once it was decommissioned.

The meat hooks still hung from the roof as if they were waiting to be used soon, tables were pushed to the side as well as a few chairs. The floor and parts of the walls were stained with blood. In a corner was a pile of rags that Jason didn’t want to even want to consider what they were used for, and sitting in front of the pile of rags was a single shoe.

Looking around, Jason wondered if maybe Damian had the right idea about going vegetarian.

Everything around him screamed perfect murder house. Everything around him was perfect for someone who wanted to kill someone without being discovered. It was with that thought that his eyes were drawn back to the shoe sitting on its own. Jason swallowed. That was not the kind of shoe that you would expect to see someone working at a slaughterhouse to wear. It was too feminine. It was too small.

Jason strode over to the shoe and knelt down, a pit forming in the base of his stomach. The small mary jane style shoe was very out of place for a building like this. Picking it up, he saw that the heel was severely scuffed and that it was still buckled up to the smallest hole. This shoe hadn’t come off its owner's foot easily.

Placing it back down where he found it, Jason pinched the bridge of his nose and took a deep breath. If this meant what he thought it did, Alibrandi was in for a world of pain when they finally met face to face.

Straightening up, Jason turned to find Zivah standing in the doorway and looking around the room in disgust. Her nose was crinkled, and for a moment Jason was distracted from what could have happened in the room. Despite looking less than enthusiastic, Zivah was very cute with her nose crinkled like it was. Shaking his head and making sure that the thought went as quickly as it came, Jason gestured for her to join him.

‘I don’t think that Alibrandi has been traveling alone,’ Jason explained and pointed to the shoe.

Zivah crouched down and looked over the shoe. The disgusted look that had been gracing her face disappeared and was replaced with one filled with anger. When she looked at Jason again, her eyes looked as if they had a fire burning in them.

‘The lots in this area have just recently been bought to be developed into luxury apartments. Construction is to start in a month,’ Zivah explained as she straightened up. ‘This location was not chosen just on a whim.’

‘No, something tells me he did his research,’ Jason said. ‘He could bring as many girls back here and dispose of them here as well. If the bodies aren’t discovered when they do their final look through before demolition than it could take months. By then he’s in another city doing the exact same thing.’

‘I hate to say it, but he is proving that his abilities to think through murders were not faked,’ Zivah said looking around. ‘If they decide to implode the building the explosion could destroy the bodies as well as the building. Even if they didn’t a wrecking ball could cover the bodies with enough debris that they could be carted away without the wrecking crew suspecting a thing.’

Jason walked into the middle of the room and looked around. His eyes taking in everything from the position of the windows to where the tables were. Zivah watched him questioningly.

‘What are you thinking?’

‘As you said, this place is the perfect place to hide some bodies,’ Jason said. ‘Why don’t we use that to our advantage.’

‘You want to turn the tables on him? Make this his gave instead?’

Jason only grinned in reply.

* * *

The sun had been set for an hour before when a nondescript, blue car drove down the road and pulled up in front of the warehouse. Marcus Alibrandi stepped out of the car and looked around before walking to the back of the vehicle. With a twist of the key, the boot popped open, and he reached inside to pull the terrified blonde out. Slinging her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, he closed the lid of the boot before striding purposefully into the warehouse.

Scared, the girl started to beat his back with her duct taped hands. It did nothing to stop Alibrandi’s stride.

The inside was dark, and the only light he had came from the moon shining through the windows in the roof. It was enough for him to find his way to the back of the building where the slaughterhouse was. Once inside, he dropped the ten-year-old carelessly on top of one of the tables. She let out a pained scream through her gag which was then gargled when Alibrandi’s hand pressed down on her throat.

‘Now beautiful, I’m not going to hurt you. I will even let you go in the morning. All you have to do between now and then is not fight me and do everything I ask you to,’ Alibrandi said, pulling a knife out of his pocket and letting the moonlight shine on it.

‘I wouldn’t believe him, kid. I’m pretty sure he said the same thing to all the others, and they never left,’ a voice said.

Alibrandi whipped around, searching the room for the owner of the voice.

‘Who the fuck is there?’

Out of the darkness, something came flying towards Alibrandi, hitting his hand hard and making him drop his knife. His cry of pain was drowned out by the voice saying: ‘Language.’

The reprimand did nothing to improve Alibrandi’s mood, and he scowled as he bent down to pick up his knife.

‘I’ve been looking all over for you Alibrandi. There are a few families in Australia who want to have a chat with you, and I’m pretty sure that this girl’s family are wondering where she is as I’m pretty sure she didn’t go home and as for permission to come here.’

Behind him, the girl rolled herself onto her side, and her eyes widened in fear as a man walked out of the shadows. She had seen him all over the news for the past month. Red Hood. The man that had shot and killed The Penguin in Gotham. He was one of the most wanted men in the country, and he was standing across the room from her.

He didn’t have the helmet that he was famous for wearing, nor was he wearing the brown jacket. But the red bat on his chest and the way he walked was too familiar to what she had seen playing on the news for the man in front of her not to be Red Hood. Alibrandi, however, hadn’t noticed the approach of the man, and it wasn’t until Red Hood's boot stepped on the blade of the knife Alibrandi had so carelessly dropped that Alibrandi looked at him.

‘Uh, uh, uh. We don’t want to be doing that,’ Red Hood said waving a finger at him.

Alibrandi bared his teeth and brought his leg around to kick Red Hood. The girl was sure that Red Hood rolled his eyes behind his mask before grabbing Alibrandi’s leg.

‘I warned you,’ Red Hood said, gripping his ankle with both hands and swinging him around. He let him go and didn’t take his eyes off him until he had bounced twice and slid to a stop. After hearing a satisfying groan, Red Hood turned his attention to her.

She tried to shift out of his reach but had barely moved a couple of inches before he was in front of her and sitting her up. The sudden appearance of a switchblade made her wince, but he only used it to cut through the duct tape around her wrists and ankles before putting it away. He very carefully removed the duct tape before untying the gag, apologising when he accidentally pulled her hair.

‘Are you ok? Did he hurt you before you came here?’

She shook her head.  ‘No. He just scared me.’

‘Good,’ Red Hood said, and she was sure that he was smiling behind the mask. ‘Now you need to get out of here. Don’t worry about him, he’s not going to hurt you again. But you need to leave.’

As she nodded, she saw movement out of the corner of her eye. Behind Red Hood, Alibrandi was getting to his feet, and this time he was holding a gun. ‘Look out!’

The words barely left her mouth when a golden cord wrapped itself around Alibrandi’s neck and pulled him up into the air before dropping him to the ground hard. Red Hood looked over his shoulder and nodded into the darkness behind him, then lifted her off the table. Once her feet were on the floor once more, he pointed to the door.

‘Go, get out of here and don’t look back.’

She didn’t reply. She didn’t even nod. All she could do was run just like Red Hood had told her to do. The last thing she saw was Red Hood stalking towards the groaning body of Alibrandi and a dark-haired woman walking out of the shadows. For a second she thought that maybe Wonder Woman was helping Red Hood as she as holding a golden rope, but she forgot it the moment she got out to Alibrandi’s car and started to run towards the nearest police station.

She didn’t hear the sounds of screams and pleas, nor did anyone else who were driving by the old warehouses. Just as no one had listened to the cries and pleas of two little girls, who had been dragged into the warehouse before the scared little girl who had just escaped.

* * *

It took thirty minutes for the police to show up which was ten minutes longer than Jason had initially planned for. As they sat on the roof in darkness watching, Zivah pulled out her phone and sent a concise message:  _It’s done_.

They sat in silence after that, just watching the red and blue lights as they danced on the bricks. Neither one wanting to discuss the bodies of the two girls they had discovered during their wait for Alibrandi. Neither one wanting to discuss what they had done to Alibrandi. Really there was nothing to discuss. There had been no arguments over what they needed to do to get the information they needed. They had worked around each other, almost in tandem, until they had everything they needed. Then they had finished him off the same way he had killed all his other victims. They both considered it poetic justice.

‘I considered him my Uncle,’ Zivah said.

If Jason was shocked by that, he didn’t show it. He just continued to watch what was happening below.

‘He was an old friend of my Mother’s. She had been the one to initially bring him in to start working. It broke her heart when she found out what he had been doing. She nearly started hunting him herself when we discovered that he had been grooming my sister.’

Jason glanced at her out of the corner of his eye.

‘The more we uncovered, the more we realised that we had brought a monster into the Jade Ryū. Mama couldn’t bare to let anyone outside the family deal with him. Her family had introduced the monster. It was our duty to ensure that he stopped breathing. It ultimately became a matter of honour. If we didn’t handle the situation, there was a possibility that those below us would not trust us to lead with honour.’

‘You’re a part of the Miyamoto family,’ Jason said.

‘I’m the heir of the Miyamoto family,’ Zivah explained. ‘My mother, as much as she would have preferred to handle this herself, was unable to do so. It became my job.’

‘Your father couldn’t do it?’

‘My father maybe married to my mother, but he is still considered an outsider. A beloved outsider but an outside none the less. If he had done it for my mother, it would have looked as if she was passing the job off to someone else.’

‘And what will it look like when you go back and have to explain that I helped?’

Zivah smiled. ‘It will look like we happened to discover that we were both tracking the same person and decided to team up.’

‘A bit of a lie.’

‘I prefer to think of it as stretching the truth,’ Zivah replied. ‘Besides the only one who will know the full truth are my parents, and they are not about to begrudge me this.’

Jason just hummed.

Zivah pulled out her phone once again. ‘Are you hungry?’

Jason stared at her. ‘Pardon?’

Zivah laughed. ‘Are you hungry? There is this ramen place just down from my hotel that I have been dying to try since I booked in.’

Jason smirked. ‘Are you asking me on a date?’

‘No, I’m asking if you want food. Consider it an interest payment on what I already owe you.’

‘You’re not backing out on that?’

‘Why would I? I promised that I would put you in touch with people who could help bring your friends back. I might be a part of a crime family, but I don’t go back on my word.’

‘You’re the heir of a crime family,’ Jason told her getting to his feet with her.

‘All the more reason not to go back on my word,’ Zivah replied. ‘So?’

Jason stretched before rubbing his tummy a little. ‘Yeah, I could eat.’

‘Good. Let's go,’ Zivah said, stooping down to grab her bag before walking across the rooftop.

The two walked in silence most of the way to the restaurant until Zivah turned to him and started to do a bouncy sidestep.

‘So, do I have to keep calling you Red Hood or is there another name that I can call you?’

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading. 
> 
> I have edited this all myself with the help of Grammarly so please let me know if you notice any mistakes.
> 
> This is going to be a series but whether or not it's going to be written in order is a completely different story. 
> 
> You can find me on Tumblr under the same name KalieKlys (https://kalieklys.tumblr.com/)


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